Effect of Industry Funding on Outcome Reporting in Cervical Disc Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background Context: Cervical Disc Arthroplasty (CDA) has been shown to be an effective and safe alternative to Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF), with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting non-inferior or even favorable outcomes to ACDF. However, the current literature of large RCTs reporting long-term outcomes of CDA primarily comprises of the industry sponsored Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) trials. As a result, CDA has yet to be universally accepted by surgeons due to concerns of bias in the current literature.